Meet Patrick German. Commanding officer of USS Ashland navy ship.

It was an honour to tour at amphibious USS Ashland assault ship that stopped about a week off Kota Kinabalu waters. 

We took a tourist boat from Jesselton Point for about 5 minutes and disembarked at the gigantic ship. 

The ship commanding officer Patrick L German, 50, greeted us and showed us around the ship. It is my first ever getting on the vessel meant for war and also humanitarian visions.

He showed three interesting parts of the ship which are the entry-exit route for vehicles which in between there is a rotating platform so the tanks or trucks do not have to reverse and etc.

The second one is its Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM), parked at the bottom of Ashland. It takes about 30 minutes to fill up the area with water to deploy LSD48 out. Capacity of LSD? "One more people....", said German.

The third one is the "commanding" and "control" area.

All guests receive a good luck coin and a hat from German. 

German, who has been with the US Navy since 19, had been a commanding officer for USS Avengers between 2010 and 2011. 

                      At German's cozy cabin, where we were feted with American soft cookies.

The view from the control room. German told us that it was his 18th visit in Kota Kinabalu. His wife, particularly, loves Sabah for the people, sightseeing and food.